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My Lady Jane.

Hand, Cynthia (author) and Brodi Ashton (author) and others.

Wacky, irreverent, and just plain fun, this three-way collaboration of Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows plays fast and loose with history. Set in 1553 Tudor England, the beginning is rooted in fact: young King Edward is sickly, the prognosis isn’t good, and instead of risking the rule of his despotic older sister (that would be the future Bloody Mary), Edward names as his heir his bookish cousin, Jane Grey—after first marrying her off. All the civil unrest of the Tudor era is on display, with the Catholic-Protestant conflict neatly reimagined as a feud between shape-shifters (Eðians) and non-shape-shifters. Jane, who secretly envies the Eðians, has no desire to be queen or a wife and is not particularly thrilled to meet her new husband, Gifford. Little does she know that he is not the womanizing rake she thinks, but a cursed Eðian who spends his nights as a man and his days as a horse. When Mary’s plans to seize the throne take a turn for the murderous, Jane and Gifford find themselves caught up in a web of court intrigue, adventure, and maybe a little romance. Wonky, offbeat, and happily anachronistic—the references run the gamut from Shakespeare to Monty Python, with plenty of nods to The Princess Bride—this fantasy adventure politely tips its hat to history before joyfully punting it out of the way. An utter delight. Maggie Reagan